Shamdin Agha

Shamdin Agha (also known as Shamlin Agha; died 1860) was an Ottoman Kurdish commander of irregulars in the service of the Ottoman governors of Damascus and Sidon Eyalet. In effect, he was powerful paramilitary chieftain in Damascus. His descendants became a prominent family with his namesake, Shamdin, in Ottoman Syria.

Biography Shamdin was born in Acre to a Kurdish tribal sheikh named Musa. In the early 19th century, he moved to the al-Salihiyah suburb of Damascus. There, he built a power base from Kurdish immigrants and was assigned as the commander of a military garrison in the city, He was one of three of Sulayman Pasha's Kurdish cavalry officers, the other two being Ni'mat Agha and Ayalyaqin Agha.

Sulayman Pasha died in 1819 and was succeeded by his deputy Abdullah Pasha ibn Ali. Shamdin Agha was the only commander from Sulayman's service to continue serving under Abdullah (r. 1820–1831). During the 1820s, the Damascus provincial authorities assigned Shamdin control over certain rural districts in the Damascus Eyalet, including the Beqaa Valley.